


and we smile, but never say too much

by notavodkashot



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Manhandling, blastia manipulation, there's raven/yuri in the background if you squint and tilt your head
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24691345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notavodkashot/pseuds/notavodkashot
Summary: Raven belongs to Brave  Vesperia and that means he's not allowed to die.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	and we smile, but never say too much

On a certain level, Raven knew this was a trap. 

He wasn’t stupid – okay, he was, in fact, fundamentally stupid, as any quick once-over his life… lives could show, but he was not entirely lacking in self-awareness – he knew damn well Judith grabbing his hand and making eyes while dragging him in the direction of the nearest inn was not likely to end the way he was loudly hoping it would. Judith liked to tease and Raven was only human, and there was no foul in that! 

It was gentle ribbing, camaraderie at its finest. 

She was probably walking him into a prank concocted by Karol and Patty, or something like that. 

Probably. 

“There we go,” Judith said, sly grin twitching at the corner of her lips as she closed the door behind her, and walked up decidedly up into his personal space, until he was walking back all the way into the nearest bed. “Almost all set~” 

“Judy, dar _ling_ ,” Raven said, aiming for a teasing tone and accidentally squawking the last syllable a whole ass octave higher when she _didn’t_ stop crawling into his personal space once he was sitting in bed and in fact kept pressing and pushing and then he was lying flat on his back and she was right _there_ and the words withered in the back of his throat. “What-“ 

There was a click. 

It was metallic and loud and the basest level of Raven’s mind, yes, the one even baser than the one entranced by the cleavage pressed hard against his nose, heard that click and recognized it for what it was. It still took a moment for that realization to claw its way through the fog, but Judith helped by pulling back and sitting on his knees, so he when he tried to follow it became clear he couldn’t. 

She’d handcuffed him to the bed. 

Not the headboard, the bed itself, at an awkward angle where his arms had no slack and he was forced to arch his back slightly to alleviate the tension in his shoulders. 

Now that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, Raven thought philosophically. He’d always figured when – if – Judith finally got around taking him up on his offer, she was going to be calling the shots. Really, he was good at being ordered around – he didn’t laugh about that thought, very carefully, because he always thought of Estelle when it came down to it, and then he wasn’t laughing so much as needing a drink and possibly a river to throw himself into. But that was morbid enough and Judith’s eyes were glinting, the smug way they did when she got the killing shot before Yuri did, and she was very much sitting on his knees and pinning him in place. 

And Raven was not at all opposed to let her have her way with him, really. 

Raven was not at all opposed to almost anything, really. 

“Behave yourself,” she said, leaning in so close he could feel her breath on his mouth, and then she grinned and flicked her fingers on his forehead, hard. “You don’t want me to get rough, do you?” 

Raven opened his mouth to croak that maybe he did, but Rita chose that moment to fling the door open so hard it was a miracle it didn’t fall off its hinges. Raven squawked again. It was a very undignified noise, but then this was a very undignified situation as it was. 

“He’s ready!” Judith informed Rita rather cheerfully, and Raven’s previous thoughts about a prank surfaced once more, almost smug. 

“God, you’re disgusting,” Rita snarked, giving him a one over and rolling her eyes. Then she turned to Judith with a scowl. “You didn’t take off his dumb tunic before you ‘cuffed him.” 

Raven realized Estelle was standing behind Rita, whispering admonishments to try and defend him – weakly at that – and that wasn’t enough to distract him from the fact Rita wanted him shirtless apparently. 

“He’d be too distracted,” Judith pointed out with a shrug, “he’s borderline as it is.” 

“ _Disgusting_ ,” Rita insisted, and then shoved her hand into Raven’s shirt. “Oh well.” 

Raven squawked again, and dearly wished he could stop making that sound. He couldn’t even cover his mouth to stop himself either. 

“Rita!” 

“Shush,” their resident blastia genius snorted, waving an impatient hand in his face before roughly shoving fabric aside and bearing the whole of his chest to the room. “I’m busy.” 

Raven squirmed. Judith shifted in response, and he realized he _was_ pretty pinned in place. 

Like a butterfly about to have its wings cut out. 

“It’s okay,” Estelle said, always the pacifier in any given room, “Rita’s pretty sure this is going to work.” 

“ _What’s_ going to work?” Raven demanded, or at least he tried to make it a demand. 

He was pretty happy that it wasn’t a squawk, but then Rita shot _power_ through the core of the blastia in his chest and he squawked so loud they must have heard him all the way to the street. 

“This isn’t yours,” Rita said, put out. 

“Funny how it’s stuck to me, though!” Raven snapped, thighs trembling with effort, but not going anywhere because Judith was there to keep them down. 

He wasn’t getting out of that bed, unless he was game to dislocate one or both arms. 

“Not the blastia, you moron,” Rita said, rolling her eyes dramatically, like _Raven_ was the irrational one here, not her. She knocked on the gem-like core on Raven’s chest. “The life-force powering it. It’s not yours.” 

Raven thought of Baction. Raven thought of the bumbling band of idiots that dug him out of that pit, even though he’d burned himself out and it wouldn’t make a difference anyway. Raven thought of Leblanc’s stupid need to be insightful and the fact every single one of the others followed suit once he told them what to do. 

Raven pulled against the restraints, testing them, and bared his teeth on reflex. 

“No,” he said, keenly uncomfortable with Rita _touching_ the core, because he was selfish and terrible and this was his burden to bear, “it’s not.” 

Rita shrugged. 

“That makes this easier,” she explained, as if Raven knew what _this_ was. She cracked her knuckles. “C’mon, Estelle. Let’s start.” 

Estelle blinked. 

“Just like that?” She said, frowning. “You’re not…” 

“His life belongs to Brave Vesperia,” Judith pointed out, and shifted her weight playfully, as if to remind Raven she was there. “He doesn’t get a choice about this.” 

“Hey,” Raven said, staring at Estelle, because she was his last hope, he was sure. Rita was impossible to argue with and Judith wouldn’t change her mind no matter what he said. But Estelle… they were almost friends, Raven ventured a guess. Despite it all, even. “Hey, Princess. Let’s not get carried away.” 

“It’s okay,” she said, eyes gleaming as her power flooded the room, light shifting her smile and making it a sliver more sinister than she probably intended. “We’ve got you.” 

She said it like she was just going to use her healing on him, not like the formula Rita cast using her power, and which apparently Judith was amplifying. Estelle’s healing was nice and soothing and refreshing. This felt like dying. Repeatedly. 

He didn’t squawk though. 

Mostly he just screamed. 

And screamed. 

All the way until it stopped or he passed out, he didn’t remember. 

* * *

Raven woke up smothered. 

Apparently, after they were done torturing him, the trio of evil, evil girls decided it was perfectly okay to shuffle into his bed. 

Or, maybe, they were so exhausted by the complicated formula they passed out and Judith put them on the bed. But that was thinking charitably and he was cranky and not wanting to feel charitable. 

He was also still tied to the bed. 

“Now, now,” Judith whispered in his ear, “I thought this would be a dream come true for you.” 

Raven stared at the ceiling and sighed. Then he resisted the urge to snort when the movement jostled Rita and she shoved him in her sleep, burying her face into his side. 

Estelle was just delicately snoring into his chest, as angelic as anything. 

But of course, he wasn’t looking. 

He was staring at the ceiling. 

“Some dreams, Judy darling,” he said, “they’re not meant to become reality.” 

He fully intended to fall asleep on the spot, just to end the conversation on that note. Instead, Judith reached a hand to tilt his head sideways, so she was pressed almost nose to nose to him. In the dark, her eyes were bright, reflective, almost like a cat’s. 

“You really didn’t think we were just going to let you _die_ as collateral in the fight with the Adephagos,” she said, in a tone that implied this was a very stupid question to even have to ask in the first place, “did you?” 

Raven swallowed hard. 

“A world without blastia, wasn’t it?” He whispered, lips twitching into a small smile. “It would have been fine. You know.” 

“Fine and right are not the same thing,” Judith said, pinching the stubble scattered on his chin and tugging on it playfully. “Brave Vesperia does what’s right, not what’s easy,” she said, confidently, and then smiled back at him before leaning in to press her lips to the corner of his. “And when we don’t know what it’s right, we’ll just default on whatever makes Yuri happy.” 

Raven pretended very hard his face was not warm. 

“Yuri would untie my hands,” he said, twitching his arms meaningfully, but not enough to dislodge either Estelle or Rita from his person. 

Judith snorted. 

“No, he wouldn’t.” 

Left with no other options, Raven pouted at the unfairness of it all rather than contemplate the pulse of warmth resting at the core of his blastia. 

* * *

“You’re in a good mood,” Karol pointed out, as Raven slouched his way into the table where the rest of the guild was well on their way to breakfast. 

It was only polite, after all. And Rita had already threatened to turn him inside out through his nostrils when she woke up drooling a spot on his shirt. The only reason she hadn’t was the fact Judith pointed out he was still tied up and Estelle insisting all their hard work would be for nothing if she did. Raven thought it said something that he expected those defenses to come from each other, but he wisely said nothing at all. 

Raven sauntered over to sit at his place by Yuri’s left, reached out to steal Yuri’s plate wholesale and plopped a piece of fruit into his mouth as he ignored Yuri’s unamused glare for his antics. 

“I had lovely dreams, last night.” 

“I don’t need to hear it!” Karol squeaked, face flushed. 

“Why not?” Raven laughed. “They were about the long, productive life I expect to keep living, as a humble servant of Brave Vesperia.” 

“Very hard to find good help, these days,” Patty said philosophically, as the silence stretched too long. 

Raven squawked in outrage as the whole table burst out laughing. 

“I do believe I’m being bullied,” he whined, and then startled when Yuri reached out to grab his hand and tug it his way, to steal a bite of the fruit he’d meant to eat. 

“You like it, old man,” Yuri pointed out, grinning with his teeth just barely not touching Raven’s fingers. “It makes you feel special.” 

Raven looked at him for a moment, and then at the rest of the table, laughing and jeering and deceptively carefree, for the group set out to save the world. He could, of course, admit it. He could own up to it, the desperate handful of contradicting emotions forever stuck two inches down his throat. He could say something or everything or _anything_. 

But all he’d ever been was dead and buried and gone, and all that was left was Raven, whose life belonged to Brave Vesperia, just the way he was. 

Just as he was. 

“Judy,” Raven whined, turning around – but not pulling his hand free of Yuri’s, voice nasally high and fake and taunting, “my darling saviour, I need you!” 

Judith smiled, and didn’t call him out. 

Raven almost loved her just for that, honestly. 

**Author's Note:**

> Come hang out on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/notavodkashot), if you'd like.


End file.
